Total pages in book: 157
Estimated words: 154525 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 773(@200wpm)___ 618(@250wpm)___ 515(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 154525 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 773(@200wpm)___ 618(@250wpm)___ 515(@300wpm)
As if she knew what was coming next.
“You get off that fucking car!” yelled Carina. From the front door, she spied Nico and told him, “Oh, good. You’ve already got the tux on. I’ll bring out the bowtie. The photographer is just getting done, and he’ll keep a distance to take some shots out here. Did you grab a boutonniere?”
He lifted the plastic containers for her to see. “I’m not totally incapable, sis.”
Even if he did need to make reminders on his phone for a lot of shit. Including the flowers. That couldn’t be helped.
Her lips pursed, but she said nothing else, instead disappearing back into the house.
Nico pulled out his phone to check the time. He heard the front door open at the same time he blacked out the screen. He had to blink to take in the sight coming across the paved driveway.
In a pink dress that draped similarly to a ballgown from the waist down, Frankie darted his way far faster than he thought was safe in heels like she wore. The tall stiletto, open-toed shoes peeked out from the high slit in the left side of the skirt and under the hem. Something pink glittered from her finger, around her throat, and dangling from her ears. The sweetheart cut of the structured top of the dress with thick straps at the shoulders allowed the jewelry she wore to be displayed. Her hair, tied back into a classic chignon, had his fingers itching to pull it all loose just to see how she looked with mussed hair in such an amazing dress.
Fuck.
He’d really done this, hadn’t he?
“I was starting to think you were going to be late,” Frankie told him as the two met in front of the cars.
He barely noticed the others coming out of the house but still clocked them. He tried to keep his focus on the person who needed his attention the most.
“I wasn’t going to miss this for anything; I just had some things to handle.”
Frankie grinned wide. “Oh, like what?”
He pointed at the freshly washed Mustang. “I heard you wanted to pull a double ride into the prom parade.”
“It was just an idea.”
“Yeah, that’s not what you texted me last night.”
“I said it would be nice, pink and black.” She pointedly looked between the Supra and Mustang and then gestured at the two of them. “Pink and black. Don’t act like you don’t see the vision.”
He adored that she even had one, and it somehow, currently, involved him. And his car. Bonus.
“I see the vision, and she’s standing right in front of me,” he murmured.
Her grin turned into something else, then, and she almost wouldn’t meet his stare, but he found it through her lowered lashes.
“Did you get me a flower?”
“Pink carnation. We can put it all on closer to the venue. No need to let them wilt.”
That, and he didn’t want so many eyes on him as he got close enough to touch Frankie. Not when she looked like that and kept staring at him the way she did.
Frankie looked back at the house, at the photographer snapping pictures from thirty feet away and her father and stepmother waiting near a pillar. “I think they’re gonna drive ahead so they can see the entrance and our entry.”
“So, I’m driving the Rolls, right?” Nico asked, smirking.
Frankie guffawed. “In your dreams, but I might let you take it for a spin after.”
Nico’s mind stumbled on that comment. “After?”
That hadn’t been discussed.
“A minute, Nico?”
The call came from the house. Or rather, the man standing next to the pillar. He cleared his throat, gaze jumping between a suddenly nervous Frankie and Salvatore who had stepped slightly away from Carina, waiting for Nico to move.
He didn’t even think about it, it almost felt like he couldn’t control the movement as he leaned in to press a kiss to Frankie’s cheek as he passed her by, murmuring, “I don’t know who picked out that dress, but good fucking choice.”
He left her sharp intake of breath behind, still hearing it seconds later.
Still feeling it.
Even as he realized what he’d done standing toe to toe with her father.
Carina, holding a pink and white bag that looked very expensive, barely paid them any mind as she crossed the driveway saying, “Don’t forget this. His bowtie is in the bag so make sure he puts it on correctly and take pictures. I want pictures!”
“Oh, like the press won’t be there,” Frankie replied. “You’ll see it all, anyway.”
Press?
Salvatore noticed Nico’s expression at the mention of press. “You didn’t think you’d escape with just a few photos from us, did you? She’s the stepdaughter of a supermodel and the blood of a well known made man. That’s society fodder to half the people in the city. I bet you’ll be on society rags by tomorrow morning. Press always picks up around us when Carina stays in town for more than a few weeks.”